Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
Separate thought: I wonder what the consequences of these decisions will be.
Will independent authors and publishers thrive? A lot of people borrow books from libraries or friends because they cannot afford new books (or do not want to pay the price). If authors and independent publishers are the only ones willing to lend books, this will give them more exposure. That exposure may lead to more library purchases and consumer purchases.
Or maybe the ereader market will collapse? A lot of people buy readers to borrow ebooks from their libraries. Indeed, libraries are huge promoters of ereaders. If people stop buying ereaders because they can't borrow the books that they want, or they stop buying ereaders because they aren't being exposed to them at libraries, the ereader (and by extension, ebook) market could very well vanish.
Then again, maybe publishers are right and people will buy more ebooks if fewer free ebooks are available. I somehow doubt this because new books offer very little entertainment for their price, which is important since most of the sales figures we've seen suggest that fiction is where the ebook market is at the moment. But hey, I could be wrong. After all, I have never been among the privileged elite so I rarely had the privilege of buying new books.
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You left out the obvious answer: that piracy rates will skyrocket. When you make it difficult for people to obtain your product legally, they will find ways to do it illegally.